an
threefold. The main part would be for octavos. This is becoming more and
more the classical or normal size; so that nowadays the octavo edition
is professionally called the library edition. Then there should be
deeper cases for quarto and folio, and shallower for books below octavo,
each appropriately divided into shelves.

If the economy of time by compression is great, so is the economy of
cost. I think it reasonable to take the charge of provision for books in
a gentleman's house, and in the ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume.
This may vary either way, but it moderately represents, I think, my
own experience, in London residences, of the charge of fitting up with
bookcases, which, if of any considerable size, are often unsuitable for
removal. The cost of the method which I have adopted later in life, and
have here endeavored to explain, need not exceed one penny per volume.
Each bookcase when filled represents, unless in exceptional cases,
nearly a solid mass. The intervals are so small that, as a rule, they
admit a very small portion of dust. If they are at a tolerable distance
from the fireplace, if carpeting be avoided except as to small movable
carpets easily removed for beating, and if sweeping be discreetly
conducted, dust may, at any rate in the country, be made to approach to
a quantite negligeable.

It is a great matter, in addition to other advantages, to avoid the
endless trouble and the miscarriages of movable shelves; the looseness,
and the tightness, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and the broken
fingernails. But it will be fairly asked what is to be done, when the
shelves are fixed, with volumes too large to go into them? I admit that
the dilemma, when it occurs, is formidable. I admit also that no book
ought to be squeezed or even coaxed into its place: they should
move easily both in and out. And I repeat here that the plan I have
recommended requires a pretty exact knowledge by measurement of the
sizes of books and the proportions in which the several sizes will
demand accommodation. The shelf-spacing must be reckoned beforehand,
with a good deal of care and no little time. But I can say from
experience that by moderate care and use this knowledge can be attained,
and that the resulting difficulties, when measured against the aggregate
of convenience, are really insignificant. It will be noticed that my
remarks are on minute details, and that they savor more of serious
handiwork in the